The Agrarian's Lament

So on to 2023!

I decided to go ice fishing today.

My daughter is the real ice fishing aficionado in our family. I had some experience with it as a boy, but oddly enough, my father didn't really engage in much ice fishing. He was a dedicated fisherman, so that's surprising. Indeed, he probably was slightly more of a fisherman than a hunter, and I in contrast I am definitely more of a hunter than a fisherman. I know that his father did both, as we all do, but I don't know how that scale balanced. I've really only heard about my father's father in regard to bird hunting, although I know that he fished the streams as well, like we all do.

Anyhow, back when I was young, in the 70s, I recall ice fishing at Alcova, which I'd be a bit afraid to do today, but it wasn't very often. I also recall people parking their trucks on the ice, which I'd never do today. My father chopped a hole in the ice with a spade, which I don't recall anyone doing since that time.

It was fun.

We have a hand auger. Much better than a spade. And little ice fishing poles, which isn't what my father used.

I didn't make it out last year. I hunted geese until the end of January, not terribly successfully, and it warmed up too much to ice fish.

Not this year.

In fact, today, going out by myself, as my daughter lives in Laramie now, I found myself flagged down going in, after I passed the snow plow. A really nice fellow I know, having called him as a witness on the Reservation, and a city councilman, formally one of my kid's religious education teachers, informed me the road was drifted in. I thanked them and pulled off

The dog wasn't pleased.

The dog believes that he's integral to fishing, and that without him, the endeavor will fail. He's very serious about his hunting occupation, and fishing is of course fish hunting.

I pulled off to let him wee. .. okay and I needed to wee too. After that, in spite of being warned, I drove down the road toward the lake.

Oh man, was it ever drifted in.

I went back down the road and met a fisherman from Douglas near the highway. He was waiting for me for a road report. He'd driven a long ways and had a lot of poles, a true ice fisherman. I gave the road report to him. He decided to try Alcova. I decided to try a different high mountain lake.

And yes, I'm not going to mention it.

Before I left for that one, I received a call from my son's girlfriend. She's a dedicated fly fisherman, a rare quality in a girlfriend and one to be seriously admired. My pickup, which my son is driving, she related, had been rear ended in a Laramie blizzard. I have his truck right now as it's having a complete mechanical breakdown.

Turns out it wasn't bad.

Couldn't make that other high mountain lake either. It was also drifted in.

Oh well.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2022 Season

Lex Anteinternet: The 2022 Season:

The 2022 Season

The 2022 hunting season has ended.

In 2022, when I wrote about the 2021 season, I started off with this:

It wasn't a great one, for a variety of reasons.

And that statement was true once again for 2022, but for different reasons, a lot of which had nothing much to do with the hunting season itself.

That's because 2022 has been the year of the field of Medicine, or age, or perhaps lifestyle, or whatever, catching up with me.

Self portrait, and a bad one, turkey hunting. I was wearing a coat under this coat, and frankly I don't look like I was feeling particularly well when this photo was taken.

In the Spring I wasn't feeling well, which after much delay and finally responding to a demand from Long Suffering Spouse, caused me to go into the doctor's office, which lead in turn to a prescription for some medicine. I'll spare you the details, but like most medicines and me, I didn't really respond terribly well to them physically. They did their job, but they also made me a bit ill, and made me ill just in time for Spring Turkey Season. I hunted turkeys, as I always do, and I did see some, but I never got up on them (I tend to stalk them, rather than lure them in). I did get a turkey call, which I'd never had before, but that failed to bring any in.

A couple of weeks later, by which times things had warmed up enough to wear my Park Service dress campaign hat, the replacement for my long serving but now lost M1911 campaign hat. I miss the old hat.

I also had the joy, and I won't detail it, of being pretty sick while hunting. Something I rarely have experienced.

It was fun anyhow, but not something for a subsistence hunter to write home about.

That takes us to fishing season, and here too, for one reason or another, I just didn't get out over the summer as much as usual. Indeed, "didn't get out as much as usual" was the theme of the year.

I fished the river several times, and one of the mountain streams I fish. I attempted to take my daughter and her boyfriend down a significant local canyon, where I'm sure there are big fish, but we failed at that. I hadn't scouted the route, and ours was pretty impassable.

I did try something I have not for several years, however, which was fishing from a kayak.

The doctor's visit mentioned earlier lead to a colonoscopy, which I wasn't too quick to get set up. That ended up getting scheduled for early Fall. And that lead to a major surgery in October.

The North American Retriever getting a cool drink from a mountain stream while blue grouse hunting.

Prior to that, I got out for blue grouse, but failed to see a single one. I never made it out sage chicken hunting. I didn't draw antelope, but my son did, and I went out with him. None of us drew limited deer, but my daughter and I went out opening morning and nearly got a couple of really good deer in a general deer area until some fool blasted right by us in a truck, scaring them off. We went back out a couple of weeks later and my son got a nice deer in a very distant area. So at least that was a partial success.

I went out for antelope with my son, and he was successful.

I drew an elk tag, but I only got out twice, once before surgery, and once after.

Surgery put me out of action in a major way for well over a month. When I got back on my feet, only waterfowl was open.

It's been a pretty good waterfowl season, however. The weather has been right for it (lousy) and lots of waterfowl have been in the area. I've shot more geese this year than I ever have before.

I thought about closing this entry out with a quote from Kristin Lavransdottir about Lavran, when he last rode away, or the video clip from No Country For Old Men at the ending with the sheriff protagonist is recalling his father. Instead, I'm just going to note that I still don't really feel up to speed, but I'm putting in for everything.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: The Staff of Life: Bread

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: The Staff of Life: Bread:

Lex Anteinternet: The Staff of Life: Bread

Lex Anteinternet: The Staff of Life: Bread:

The Staff of Life: Bread

The preparation of loaves of bread.

Bread is the staff of life; in which is contained, inclusive, the quintessence of beef, mutton, veal, venison, partridge, plum-pudding and custard: and to render all complete, there is intermingled a due quantity of water, whose crudities are also corrected by yeast or barm, through which it means it becomes a wholesome fermented liquor, diffused through the mass of bread.

Jonathan Swift, to whom I'd related on my mother's side.

Recently I heard a homily delivered referencing the Lord's Prayer and bread.

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

The Lord's Prayer in contemporary English.

The Priest, an African native, noted that for a time he'd served as a Priest in Rome, and during that time he was thrown into a bit of crisis due to the massive variety of Italian breads (twenty kinds, he related) and that so much of it was thrown away in a location that was just across from him. At home, in Zambia, bread was consumed still just once a month, when his father was paid. How, he wondered, could he relate the scarcity of bread in his native land, with the over abundance of it in his new location, and the scarcity of it referenced in the Lord's Prayer (my summation, not quite the way he put it)? He figured that very few Americans or westerners thought of it in terms of scarcity.

Pater Noster, qui es in caelis:
sanctificétur nomen tuum;
advéniat regnum tuum;
fiat volúntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidiánum da nobis hódie;
et dimítte nobis débita nostra,
sicut et nos dimíttimus debitóribus nostris;
et ne nos indúcas in temptatiónem,
sed líbera nos a malo.

The Lord's Prayer in Latin.

Well, it might be just me, or perhaps more the family I come from, but that thought, the scarcity of bread and what it means in the context of the prayer, is something that I have thought of before. Perhaps because I can recall my father mentioning, in reference itself to the prayer, that in the ancient world "bread was truly the staff of life."

Padre nostro che sei nei cieli,
sia santificato il tuo Nome,
venga il tuo Regno,
sia fatta la tua Volontà
come in cielo così in terra.
Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano,
e rimetti a noi i nostri debiti
come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori,
e non ci indurre in tentazione,
ma liberaci dal Male.

The Lord's Prayer in contemporary Italian.

And indeed it was.

Bread was the basic foodstuff that fed great masses of humanity all around the world for centuries. The diet we have today, with lots of variety, didn't exist in many localities, particularly after civilization, i.e., the construction of towns and cities, started in ancient times. Not that any ancient society really had the variety of foods we have today, but hunter gatherer societies can have a more varied one than we suppose, with a fairly balanced diet. In many ancient societies, however, once towns were built and crop agriculture set in, and indeed many societies right up until relatively modern times, bread was one of the basic if not the basic stable food item. A person might have meat often, but they could hope to get by on bread.

Notre Père qui es aux cieux,

que ton Nom soit sanctifié,

que ton règne vienne,

que ta volonté soit faite

sur la terre comme au ciel.

Donne-nous aujourd’hui notre pain de ce jour.

Pardonne-nous nos offenses,

comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.

Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,

mais délivre-nous du mal.

The Lord's Prayer in French.

That's quite a change, indeed, from what we experience now. I suppose there may be exceptions, but by and large I don't know of any society that depends upon bread the same way that all peoples once did.

Πατερ ημων ο εν τοις ουρανοις·
     Pater hēmon ho en tois uranois;
αγιασθητω το ονομα σου·
     hagiasthēto to onoma su;
ελθετω η βασιλεια σου·
     elteto hē basileia su;
γενηθητω το θελημα σου, ως εν ουρανω και επι γης·
     genēthēto to thelēma su, hos en urano kai epi gēs;
τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον δος ημιν σημερον·
     ton arton hēmon to etiusion dos hēmin sēmeron;
και αφες ημιν τα οφειληματα ημον,
     kai aphes hemin ta opheilēmata hēmon,
ως και ημεις αφηκαμεν τοις οφειλεταις ημων·
     hos kai hēmeis aphēkamen tois opheiletais hēmon;
και μη εισενεγκης ημας εις πειρασμον,
     kai mē eisenegkēs hēmas eis peirasmon,
αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου.
     alla rhusai hēmas apo tu ponēru.

The Lord's Prayer in Greek.

Which is, I suppose, why ever culture around the world seems to have its own variety of it, with some societies in the wheat growing regions of the globe having multiple vareities of it. Indeed, Italy and France seem to have a profusion of bread types, and good ones too, which we've only recently caught up with after basically importing their types.

Unser Vater in dem Himmel!
Dein Name werde geheiliget.
Dein Reich komme.
Dein Wille geschehe auf Erden wie im Himmel.
Unser täglich Brot gib uns heute.
Und vergib uns unsere Schulden,
wie wir unsern Schuldigern vergeben.
Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,
sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel.

The Lord's Prayer in German.

And thank goodness for that, I'd note. American breads of my youth were lousy, in my opinion. So packed with sugar that they are basically a really bland cake, the left a lot to be desired. Those industrial breads are still around I'd note, but I don't have to buy them and I don't.

Отче наш, Иже еси на небесех!

Да святится имя Твое,

да приидет Царствие Твое,

да будет воля Твоя,

яко на небеси и на земли.

Хлеб наш насущный даждь нам днесь;

и остави нам долги наша,

якоже и мы оставляем должником нашим;

и не введи нас во искушение,

но избави нас от лукаваго.

The Lord's Prayer in Russian.

Ironically, some of the really fancy breads of today started off, oddly enough, as poverty foods. Italian walnut based breads and pastas (basically a species of bread, really) were the food of the really poor, who gleaned walnets. Irish soda bread, which I really like and which I used to make on occasion, is a "short" bread with no or little sugar and no yeast. Easy to make with only flour, just as the Irish poor were likely to not have.

Ranch cook making what is probably soda, or sheepherder's, bread in a cast iron pan, the way it is made at camps, and the way I even make it

Оч͠е нашь ижє ѥси на н͠бсєхъ . да с͠титьсѧ имѧ

твоѥ да придєть ц͠рствиѥ твоѥ · да бѫдєть воля

твоя · яка на н͠бси и на земли хлѣбъ нашь насѫщьиыи ·

даждь намъ дьньсь · и остави намъ · длъгы

нашѧ · яко и мы оставляємъ длъжникомъ нашимъ

и нє въвєди насъ въ напасть · иъ избави ны отъ

нєприязни

The Lord's Prayer in Old Church Slavonic.

But I can see how many would have never considered this.

أبانا الذي في السّماوات

ليتقدَّسِ اسمُك

ليأتِ ملكوتُك

لتكُنْ مشيئتُكَ

كما في السَّماءِ كذلكَ على الأرض

خبزَنَا الجوهريَّ أعطِنا اليوم

واترُكْ لنا ما علينا

كما نتركُ نحنُ لِمَنْ لنا عليه

ولا تُدخِلْنا في تجربة

لكن نجِّنا مِن الشرير

آمين

The Lord's Prayer in Arabic.

Although I suspect that quite a few still do, even in spite of a modern condition in which foods supplies are so vast in the Western World that bread is sometimes regarded by some as a dietary enemy.

我們在天上的父，

願人都尊祢的名為聖，

願祢的國降臨，

願祢的旨意行在地上，

如同行在天上。

我們日用的飲食，

今日賜給我們，

免我們的債，

如同我們免了人的債，

不叫我們遇見試探，

救我們脫離兇惡，

因為國度、權柄、榮耀，全是祢的，

直到永遠。阿們！

The Lord's Prayer in Chinese.

And, in the context of the Lord's Prayer, if a person does, the deeper meaning of the prayer on that line is quite evident.

E ko mākou Makua i loko o ka lani,

e ho‘āno ‘ia Kou inoa.

E hiki mai Kou aupuni.

E mālama ‘ia Kou makemake ma ka honua nei,

e like me ia i mālama ‘ia ma ka lani lā.

E hā‘awi mai iā mākou i kēia lā i ‘ai na mākou no nēia lā;

a e kala mai ho‘i iā mākou i kā mākou lawehala ‘ana,

me mākou e kala nei i ka po‘e i lawehala i kā mākou;

a mai ho‘oku‘u ‘Oe iā mākou i ka ho‘owalewale ‘ia mai,

akā e ho‘opakele nō na‘e iā mākou i ka ino.

Hawaiian.

Vår Far i himmelen!
La navnet ditt helliges.
La riket ditt komme.
La viljen din skje på jorden
slik som i himmelen.
Gi oss i dag vårt daglige brød,
og tilgi oss vår skyld,
slik også vi tilgir våre skyldnere.
Og la oss ikke komme i fristelse, men frels oss fra det onde.
For riket er ditt,
og makten og æren i evighet.

Norwegian

Faþer vár es ert í himenríki, verði nafn þitt hæilagt.

Til kome ríke þitt, værði vili þin

sva a iarðu sem í himnum.

Gef oss í dag brauð vort dagligt,

Ok fyr gefþu oss synþer órar,

sem vér fyr gefom þeim er viþ oss hafa misgert

Leiðd oss eigi í freistni, heldr leys þv oss frá öllu illu.

Old Norse

Faðir vor, þú sem ert á himnum.

Helgist þitt nafn,

til komi þitt ríki,

verði þinn vilji, svo á jörðu sem á himni.

Gef oss í dag vort daglegt brauð.

Fyrirgef oss vorar skuldir,

svo sem vér og fyrirgefum vorum skuldunautum.

Eigi leið þú oss í freistni, heldur frelsa oss frá illu.

[Því að þitt er ríkið, mátturinn og dýrðin að eilífu, amen.]

Icelandic

Ár nAthair, atá ar neamh: go naofar d'ainm.

Go dtaga do ríocht.

Go ndéantar do thoil ar talamh

mar a dhéantar ar neamh.

Ár n-arán laethúil tabhair dúinn inniu,

agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha,

mar a mhaithimid dár bhféichiúnaithe féin.

Agus ná lig sinn i gcathú,

ach saor sinn ó olc.

[Óir is leatsa an Ríocht agus an Chumhacht

agus an Ghlóir, trí shaol na saol.]

Áiméan.

Irish

Isä meidän, joka olet taivaissa,

Pyhitetty olkoon sinun nimesi.

Tulkoon sinun valtakuntasi.

Tapahtukoon sinun tahtosi,

myös maan päällä niin kuin taivaassa.

Anna meille tänä päivänä

meidän jokapäiväinen leipämme.

Ja anna meille meidän syntimme anteeksi,

niin kuin mekin anteeksi annamme niille,

jotka ovat meitä vastaan rikkoneet.

Äläkä saata meitä kiusaukseen,

vaan päästä meidät pahasta.

[Sillä sinun on valtakunta

ja voima ja kunnia iankaikkisesti.]

Aamen.\

Finnish

Blog Mirror: PLANTING ONIONS TO SAVE YOUR GREENS AND CABBAGE

If I live long enough to get my garden back in annual existence, I'm going to try this:

PLANTING ONIONS TO SAVE YOUR GREENS AND CABBAGE

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 1, 1943. Canning and rationing

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 1, 1943. Canning and rationing & The...:

Monday, March 1, 1943. Canning and rationing & The Rosenstraße Protest.

Sarah Sundin notes a number of interesting things on her blog, including the Rosenstraße Protest in Berlin, in which gentile women married to Jewish men took to the streets to demand the return of their husbands. Ultimately, 1,800 men were released.

She also notes the U.S. Office of Price Administration implemented rationing of canned goods. Canned meats were wholly unavailable.

As Sundin explains on the rationing link on her blog, the rationing was designed to save tin, not food. It did serve to emphasize growing your own food and preserving it at home, however.

When I was a kid, vegetables that we had that weren't home-grown, were usually canned, probably expressing the habits of my parents. Frozen vegetables were available, but we usually didn't get them. When my father started a very large garden in the 70s, however, we froze peas ourselves, which only worked so so.

Commercially frozen vegetables weren't really a thing until the Birdseye company started its "flash freezing" process in 1929. The popularity of frozen foods expanded during World War Two, but collapsed again after the war. Interest started to recover in the 1950s, and then took off in the 1960s. Personally, I didn't really wasn't exposed to them much until the 1980s, when a university girlfriend was shocked that I bought canned peas and canned corn, as frozen was so much better.

Frozen really is better.

Going Feral: Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Landing. Corner Crossing and Chasing Mountain Lions

Going Feral: Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Ses...:

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Landing. Corner Crossing and Chasing Mountain Lions

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Landing. (Vo...:

The bill that may legalize corner cross, SF56, passed:

ORIGINAL SENATE

FILE NO. SF0056

ENROLLED ACT NO. 60, SENATE

SIXTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WYOMING

2023 GENERAL SESSION

AN ACT relating to game and fish; expanding the prohibition for entering private property without permission for hunting purposes to also prohibit traveling through the private property; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1. W.S. 23‑3‑305(b) is amended to read:

23‑3‑305. Hunting from highway; entering or traveling through private property without permission; penalty; hunting at night without permission prohibited.

(b) No person shall enter upon, travel through or return across the private property of any person to take wildlife, hunt, fish, collect antlers or horns, or trap without the permission of the owner or person in charge of the property. Violation of this subsection constitutes a low misdemeanor punishable as provided in W.S. 23‑6‑202(a)(v). For purposes of this subsection "travel through or return across" requires physically touching or driving on the surface of the private property.

Section 2. This act is effective July 1, 2023.

Mountain lion chasing season was established, which I think was a poor idea.

Lex Anteinternet: Another reason to be a distributist. Remote cooperation with evil.

Lex Anteinternet: Another reason to be a distributist. Remote coope...:

Another reason to be a distributist. Remote cooperation with evil.

I'm not drinking Heineken.

I'm not drinking because I'm boycotting it for Ukraine, however. I just don't like it. It's skunky, in my view. The same, I'd note, is true of Stella Artois, in my view, fairly frequently. I love Stella's ads, but the beer. . . not so much.

I will say that Heineken's "NA", alcohol free, beer, if that's truly a beer, is really good. This is probably explained by the fact that Heineken's trademark green bottles allow real beer to deteriorate, while the NA beer does not. It's the effect of ultraviolet light on the beer, through the bottles, and is why most beer is bottled in dark brown bottles. Heineken knows this and could bottle its beer in better bottles, but apparently its fans like to drink skunk water.

Canned Heineken, on the other hand, is pretty good.

Anyhow, I'm actually not drinking any beer at all right now as it is, as I've suspended doing so for Lent.

Others are foregoing Heineken for Ukraine, however.

Recent protest internet poster (I guess it's a poster), very cleverly done.

In March 2022, Heineken promised to leave Russia. Lots of businesses were doing so at the time. This fall, however, its Russian unit. . . yes the Dutch brewer has a Russian unit, instead launched 61 new soft drinks in the country which Coca Cola nad Pepsi Cola had excited.

Heineken set to launch soft drinks in Russia

Sep 22, 2022 — Heineken is going to launch a range of carbonated soft drinks in Russia, where both The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo have halted operations.

And now, a Boycott Heineken movement is on.

Let's be fair, let's hear from Heineken first.

Update on our exit from Russia

Timeline of decision to exit Russia and where we are now

24 February 2023
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In early March 2022, we announced that HEINEKEN would stop new investments and exports to Russia, ended the production, sale and advertising of the Heineken® brand, and announced that we will not accept any net financial benefits or profit (ring-fencing) from our business in Russia.

At the end of March 2022, we made the decision to leave Russia. We were the first global brewer to do so. At the time, we were clear that the process of leaving would need to be handled very carefully with the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our employees at the front of our minds. We also faced – and continue to do so today – the very real risk that if we were to stop our operations or become insolvent, the Russian Government would take action against employees or decide to nationalise our business.

Why the concern about nationalisation?

Shortly after we announced our decision to remove the Heineken® brand from the market, local operations in Russia received official warnings from Russian prosecutors that if this decision led to the suspension or closure of our business, it would be deemed to be an 'intentional bankruptcy’, which continues to be a criminal offence in Russia to this day.

At the same time, the Russian Government was drafting legislation that would make ‘intentional bankruptcy’ a trigger for nationalisation. While that legislation hasn’t yet been passed, the local laws still allow the government to appoint external management in the case of an ‘intentional bankruptcy.’ Insolvency is also a form of bankruptcy and would likely lead to the same outcome. We continue to interpret this risk to our people and business as significant.

Will the sale lead to a financial benefit to HEINEKEN?

No. First, HEINEKEN will not receive any royalties in the future related to the Russia business. Regarding the anticipated negative financial impact related to the sale of the business, on 28th March 2022, HEINEKEN expected an impairment and other non-cash exceptional charges of approximately EUR 0.4 billion in total. The final loss will be determined at the moment we transfer our business to a new owner. The amount will also partially depend on the Rouble vs. € exchange rate at the time of transfer. As stated in our 2022 Full Year Results press release (page 14), an impairment of €88 million was recorded for the period ended 31 December 2022. At the moment of disposal, the cumulative foreign exchange losses relating to Russia currently recorded in equity (€0.2 billion as per 31 December 2022) will be recognised in the income statement. The €88 million in addition to the €0.2 billion adds up to our current best estimate of circa €300 million of negative financial impact.

Will you return to Russia some day?

Our main focus right now is exiting Russia responsibly. We never comment on the details of ongoing negotiations. We have been clear from the outset that we will not profit from any sale or transfer of ownership of our business nor do we profit from the ongoing operations while we seek a buyer.

Humanitarian support for Ukraine

We thank all of our employees for the ongoing efforts to support the Ukrainian people. From opening their homes to refugees, raising funds and arranging donations, we are very proud of the response of our colleagues. HEINEKEN has already donated over 1 million Euro via the company and employees to Habitat for Humanity to support humanitarian assistance for refugees. In addition, 700,000 Euro was granted via five local operating companies bordering Ukraine, who identified over 25 local NGOs that could provide immediate relief efforts.

Next steps

As we move forward, we continue to prioritize care for our people during this transition while finding a suitable buyer in line with our values and in full compliance with international and local laws. Throughout, we have sought to balance our responsibilities in three areas: to protect our employees; to respect the law; and to find the best possible buyer that can give employees the best chance of secure future employment.

It is challenging to close a transaction in Russia at the moment as rules continue to shift. We aren’t dragging our feet and do wish things would move more quickly. With that said, all things remaining the same, we aim to reach an agreement in the first half of this year.

So, in essence, Heineken decided to leave, but the fear of its assets being taken combined with a fear that it'd be declared by Russia to be bankrupt has caused it to stay. It's selling its holdings there.

Fair enough.

But how did Heineken get in this mess? Did it just decide to ship some of its skunky green bottled product to Moscow and sell it on the streets?

Not hardly. Heineken is a giant international suds manufacturer with "global" and local brands. It's global ones are:

Amstel, billed, bizarrely, as “The world’s most local beer.”

Sol, its Mexican beer.

Dos Equis, another Mexican beer.

Laguinitas, a once time local California microbrew.

Tiger, its Singaporean beer.

Birra Moretti, its Italiani beer.

Edelweiss, whose name recalls the Alps.

Red Stripe, a one time Jamaican brand.

Dačický, a Czech brand that had been independent from 1573 until Heineken bought it and closed the brewery that had been in operation all that time.

According to Wikipedia, it owns the following breweries:

Brasseries du Maroc, Morocco

Al Ahram Beverages Company, Egypt

Amstel Brewery, Jordan

Harar Brewery, Ethiopia

Bralirwa, Rwanda

Brarudi, Burundi

Brasserie Almaza, Lebanon

Brasseries de Bourbon, Réunion

Bralima, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Consolidated Breweries, Nigeria

Groupe Castel Algérie, Algeria

Nigerian Breweries, Nigeria

Société nouvelles des Brasseries SONOBRA, Tunisia

Sierra Leone Brewery Limited, Sierra Leone

Sedibeng Brewery, South Africa

Tango Brewery, Algeria

Cambodia Brewery Ltd (CBL) in Cambodia

Shanghai Asia Pacific Brewery in China

Hainan Asia Pacific Brewery Company Ltd in China

Guangzhou Asia Pacific Brewery in China (under construction)

Multi Bintang Indonesia in Indonesia

Lao Asia Pacific Brewery in Laos

Sungai Way Brewery in Malaysia

DB Breweries in New Zealand

South Pacific Brewery Ltd (SPB) in Papua New Guinea

Asia Pacific Breweries in Singapore

Asia Pacific Brewery Lanka Limited (APB Lanka) in Sri Lanka

Thai Asia Pacific Brewery in Thailand

Heineken Vietnam Brewery Co Ltd in Vietnam

Heineken Hanoi Brewery Co Ltd in Vietnam

United Breweries Ltd Bangalore in India

Brau Union Österreich in Austria

Syabar Brewing Company in Belarus

Alken-Maes in Belgium

Zagorka Brewery in Bulgaria

Karlovačka pivovara in Croatia

Starobrno in the Czech Republic

Federation Breweries in Gateshead, England (closed 2010)[23]

H. P. Bulmer in Hereford in England

John Smith's in Tadcaster, England

Royal Brewery in Manchester, England

Heineken France:

Brasserie de l'Espérance in Schiltigheim

Brasserie Pelforth in Mons-en-Baroeul

Brasserie de la Valentine in Marseille

Brasserie Fischer in Schiltigheim (closed 2009)

Brasserie Adelshoffen in Schiltigheim (closed 2000)

Brasserie Mutzig in Mutzig (closed 1989)

Athenian Brewery in Greece

Heineken Hungária in Hungary

Heineken Ireland at Lady's Well Brewery in Cork, Ireland

Heineken Italia in Italy

Heineken Nederland in the Netherlands

Żywiec Brewery in Poland

Central de Cervejas in Portugal

Heineken Romania in Romania

Heineken Brewery LLC in Russia

Heineken Srbija in Serbia

Caledonian Brewery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Heineken Slovensko in Slovakia

Heineken España in Spain, with breweries in Seville, Valencia, Jaén and Madrid

Heineken Switzerland in Switzerland

Calanda Bräu in Switzerland

Pivovarna Laško Union in Slovenia

Brasserie Nationale d'Haiti in Haiti

Commonwealth Brewery in the Bahamas

Cervejarias Kaiser in Brazil

Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma in Mexico

Cervecerías Barú-Panama, S.A. in Panama

Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica

Lagunitas Brewing Company in the United States

Windward & Leeward Brewery in Saint Lucia

Surinaamse Brouwerij in Suriname

And hence its problem.

Pity poor Heineken, it's so freaking big that it can't really do much. If it decides to back up and go back to Holland, the Russians will cause it all sorts of problems. Now it has to sell at something like a loss just not to have more of a loss. And in Russia where all opposition to Putin and the war has been shut up, which has sent its army into a neighboring land to kill and rape, as Russian troops seem to commonly do, and which is kidnapping children, at least the locals can still order a bottle of skunk.

Now, its not as if the Russians couldn't get a beer, if they wanted one, anyhow, although reportedly the Russians are very bad at brewing beer. Given that, actually, they might very well not get a beer but for Western companies with actual know how coming in to do it for them. Goodness knows that current Russian industry seems to have not moved on much from decades ago in actual technology, so there's no real reason to figure to suppose they would have figured beer out, which everyone else on earth seems to have done.

Now, I don't think depriving Russians of a bad bottle of beer is going to win the war in Ukraine, but it is an interesting example of the remote cooperation with evil. Once things get too big, their choices are too painful. They can't pull back, or out, without potentially falling to their deaths, much like certain Russians have been doing recently.

And, oddly, by pulling the top on a glass of Dos Equis in Denver, you are helping to keep things sort of normal, just a bit, in Russia.

A problem that wouldn't arise at all if you just bought a draft of beer brewed by your local friends and neighbors, which is now perfectly possible to do.

And that's just one reason to buy local beer.